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AWN Headline News

Boom Headline News

Cartoon Network UK Buys Berliner Film’s Da Boom Crew

Cartoon Network UK has bought the first season of DA BOOM CREW, a European production from the Berliner Film Companie, slated for its U.K. premiere on Sept. 5, 2005, at 5:00 pm.

Now airing on Kids WB! In the U.S., the sci-fi comedy/adventure follows four young friends who create their own action-packed intergalactic videogame, but when a freak power surge opens up an electrical vortex, they get sucked into a parallel world exactly like their game.

Digital Headline News

Digital Domain Leverages Houdini for Stealth

Side Effects Software announced that Digital Domain employed Houdini Digital Assets technology to create the vfx for STEALTH, which immerses viewers in a photorealistic experience with jet planes flying at supersonic speeds. In order to develop this effect, Digital Domain created hyperrealistic shots that could only be created in the computer. Therefore, Digital Domain chose Side Effects Software's award-winning Houdini to create more than 650 shots ranging from heat signatures, engine effects, lift condensation and even a two-mile ring of fuel bursting into flame.

Anime Headline News

Animation Declining in Japan

The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) has released an updated report on the status of the Japanese animation industry. Surprisingly, the anime market sales in Japan declined from a high of 213.5 billion yen in 2002, to 191.2 billion yen in 2003 (a 10.4% drop). There are about 430 anime production studios in Japan, with 264 of them concentrated in greater Tokyo and 70 of those are in the Suginami district.

Studios Headline News

Platinum Studios Snags Brian Altounian For COO

Platinum Studios, an entertainment company that controls the world's largest independent library of comicbook characters, has appointed Brian Altounian Platinum Studios as coo. Altounian brings with him more than 17years of experience in the entertainment and high-tech industry, having overseen operations of the west coast offices of National Geographic Television and Time Warner Interactive.

Animation Headline News

Renegade Animation to Animate Tom Chapin Children’s DVD Series

Renegade Animation has struck a deal with three-time Grammy winner Tom Chapin to produce a series of 10 animated childrens video style shorts based on his best known songs for children. Renegade will market them as a DVD series and is also pursuing broadcast and cable opportunities. Renegade has already completed production on the first video, THIS PRETTY PLANET.

Headline News

Rob Moore New President at Paramount Pictures

Rob Moore joins Paramount Pictures as president, worldwide marketing, distribution and operations, responsible for domestic and international marketing and distribution, administration, legal and business affairs, and backlot operations.

Moore comes to Paramount from Joe Roth's Revolution Studios, where he served as Roth's partner overseeing the film and media production company for the past five years. Prior to Revolution, Moore served at the Walt Disney Studio for 13 years, most recently as evp of operations and finance.

Headline News

Ex’pression College Students Create NASA Trailer

Expression College for Digital Arts announced that several students in its Digital Visual Media program helped create a three-minute trailer showing highlights of a proposed interactive visual game for NASA targeted for use in schools at K-12 level, titled the Miranda Project.

Brazil Headline News

Frantic Films Deploys Brazil Rendering System

SplutterFish announced that Frantic Films has placed a large order for Brazil r/s, SplutterFishs award-winning 3D rendering suite, to be the primary rendering backbone in its new large-scale production pipeline. Early Brazil r/s adopter Frantic Films will increase its reliance on Brazil r/s based on its own in-house benchmark testing.

Animation Headline News

IDT Names President of Feature Films & TV & CCO, Animated Features

IDT Ent. has announced two key executive appointments. Neil S. Braun, currently president/coo of Vanguard Animation and former president of the NBC Television Network, chairman/ceo of Viacom Ent. and president/coo of Imagine Films Ent., has been named president of feature films and television. Veteran animation producer and creative affairs exec Jerry Davis, whose credits include ROBOTS, ICE AGE, IRON GIANT and TOY STORY, has been named cco, animated features.

Headline News

New Line Builds Genbot

New Line has signed HERBIE: FULLY LOADED director Angela Robinson to a seven-figure deal to co-write and direct the action comedy, GENBOT, reports VARIETY. Robinson and co-writer Alex Kondracke pitched the idea of a young woman who gets involved a secret government operation that turns her into a cyborg to the studio. Robinson will produce from her Pink Thunder production house along with partners Larry Kennar and Lisa Stewart. George Waud and Shanna MacNair are shepherding for New Line.

Headline News

North Korean Toon Feature To Open in South Korea

EMPRESS CHUNG is set to be the first major feature animated entirely in communist North Korea to see a wide release in a capitalist country when it opens in South Korea on Friday, reports REUTERS. It will open in Pyongyang on Aug. 15, the same day the Korean peninsula was freed from Japanese colonial control and was divided into North and South Korea by the Allied forces. The film directed by Nelson Shin will be the first to open jointly in North and South Korea.

"We made it together. We will watch it together. I couldn't be happier," Shin said.

Million Headline News

DreamWorks Animation Posts 2Q Losses

In announcing its second quarter results, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. announced revenue totaled $35.4 million resulting in a net loss of $3.7 million or $.04 per share on a fully diluted basis. This compares to revenue of $300.3 million and a net income of $146.1 million, or $1.89 per diluted share for the same period in 2004. The company ended the period with $430 million of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.

Film Headline News

Did Island Clone Parts from ‘70s Horror Pic?

The producers of the 1979 flick PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR filed suit Aug. 8, 2005, in federal court in New York claiming DreamWorks and Warner Bros. THE ISLAND lifted sections of their film, reports VARIETY. Outside of the usual request for unspecified damages and part of the proceeds, the lawsuit demands the court to order the studios to withdraw the film from theaters and bar further release.

Series Headline News

4Kids Deals New Yu-Gi-Oh! Series to Cartoon Network

4Kids Ent. Inc. announced the next chapter of the successful YU-GI-OH! franchise with the premiere of YU-GI-OH! GX. Set a generation in the future and appealing to a younger audience, YU-GI-OH! GX will debut on Cartoon Network beginning this October.

Home Headline News

Jay Jay Flies Onto Video with Paramount & PBS

Paramount Home Ent. and PBS Home Video have acquired the North American rights to PorchLight Ent.s JAY JAY THE JET PLANE, with plans to relaunch the property on home video in the spring of 2006. Under the multi-year deal, Paramount Home Ent. will distribute and market a minimum of two new titles per year in North America under the PBS Kids label.

Show Headline News

Muppets Invade DVD

THE MUPPETS WIZARD OF OZ, the recent TV movie in which the lovable Jim Henson characters recreate L. Frank Baums famous story, comes to DVD on Aug. 9, 2005 (Buena Vista Home Ent., $24.99) in an extended version thats 20 minutes longer. The Emerald City will never be the same after Kermit, (as the Scarecrow) Miss Piggy (as the Wicked Witch of the West), Pepe (as Toto) and all of their friends wreak havoc along with Ashanti (as Dorothy), Jeffrey Tambor (as the Wizard), Queen Latifah (as Auntie Em) and Quentin Tarantino (as himself). Directed by Kirk R.

Animation Headline News

Big Business Meets Big Ideas at Ottawa 05's TV Animation Conference

Once again this September, Ottawa will play host to some of the leading animation execs from North America and around the world. Representatives from internationally renowned studios such as Aardman Animation and Nelvana as well as broadcasters such as Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Kids WB! will converge at the 2nd Annual Television Animation Conference (TAC), taking place on September 21 and 22 at the Chateau Laurier.

Universal Headline News

Jon Gordon Named President of Production for Universal Pictures

Veteran production exec Jon Gordon has been named president of production, Universal Pictures, joining recently named president of production Donna Langley. The two execs will work in tandem, overseeing the development and production of the studios motion pictures. Langley and Gordon will both report directly to Stacey Snider, chairman Universal Pictures. Gordon, who is currently co-president of production at Miramax Films, will start with Universal in October.

Headline News

Lucasfilm Names Joshua Katz VP of Marketing

Joshua Katz, an entertainment-industry vet, who has led the successful launch and marketing efforts behind Cartoon Network and VH1, has been named vp of marketing for Lucasfilm Ltd.

Katz will lead the global marketing initiatives for all upcoming television and feature film projects from Lucasfilm Ltd. and also guide the company's corporate-branding projects, and will report to Jim Ward, svp of Lucasfilm.

Mobile Headline News

Billy Wright to Head Mobile Activities for Warner Bros. Online

Billy Wright has been named vp, worldwide wireless, Warner Bros. Online. Reporting directly to Jim Noonan, svp/gm, Warner Bros. Online, Wright will lead the company's Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) strategic mobile teams as they develop, produce, publish and market content, including wallpapers, video and games based on the studio's world-renowned brands. The group also works to develop promotional mobile content that raises awareness for upcoming studio projects. Currently based in London, Wright will relocate to Glendale, California, in the fall.

Headline News

ILM Adds ZBrush to Production Pipeline

Pixologic, makers of ZBrush 2, the award-winning modeling, texturing and painting application, announced that Industrial Light and & Magic has integrated ZBrush's sub-division modeling and texturing toolsets into its production pipeline. Industrial Light & Magic selected ZBrush for its unparalleled ability to handle large datasets, its Pixol technology and production tested displacement-mapping abilities.

Animation Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

VFXWORLD is back from SIGGRAPH 2005 with plenty of news plus an overview later in the week and a report next week by Mary Ann Skweres on the Electronic Theater and Animation Theater. No great technological breakthroughs on display (we appear to be in a period of incremental change). But if there was a common theme among exhibitors and other participants beginning with George Lucas keynote Q&A it was in looking at ways of improving production efficiency and freeing up the creativity of the artist.

Studio Headline News

FlickerLab Expands with New Partner

FlickerLab founder, Harold Moss, and independent producer Tammy Walters, have formalized their long-term association, as Walters becomes a partner in his fast-growing animation studio. Moss and Walters first met at Curious Pictures, where Walters was head of the companys digital division.

Headline News

Omen Remake Finds Stars For a 6/6/06 Release

Damien gets a mommy and daddy for Foxs remake of THE OMEN, according to VARIETY. Liev Schreiber (SCREAM series) and Julia Stiles (MONA LISA SMILE) have been hired to play the roles of the anti-christs unknowing parents, who were originally played by Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. John Moore (2004s FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX) will direct the film, which is set to start filming in October. Dan McDermott (SELLING TIME) has adapted the script. In a marketing ploy, THE OMEN 666 will be released on Tuesday, June 6, 2006.

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